The middle school transition year poses known challenges to early adolescent adjustment, particularly for students from ethnic and racial minoritized backgrounds who face ethnic and racial discrimination from school personnel and classmates. Drawing on a sample of 711 African American and Latinx sixth-grade students attending 17 schools, we…

Peer victimization is associated with unwanted outcomes including less school belongingness and lower academic ability and school achievement. This study expanded on previous research by investigating how a perception of defending by peers and teachers interacted with peer victimization to predict four aspects of student subjective wellbeing:…

Background: In the United States (U.S.), 77% of school district leaders reported that their students had fallen behind in their social-emotional development due to COVID-19 school closures. Although research has measured indicators of social-emotional well-being from the perspective of other informants, little is known about student perceptions of…

Educational attainment is an important determinant of one's success. Yet, absenteeism among adolescents jeopardizes chances of achieving their educational goals. Absenteeism can lead to an increasing disinterest in school and the chance of dropping out in school. Thus, this study determined how parental involvement affects absenteeism among 60…

This study documents the process of implementation of an adolescent reading intervention. Using data from observations of teachers (n=17) during the 2013-14 school year, I conducted a nuanced descriptive analysis of fidelity of implementation (FoI). I also analyzed weekly logs completed by literacy coaches (n=3) to examine variation in quantity…

Introduction: North Carolina (NC) has widespread Black-White/Hispanic racial disparities in exclusionary discipline (punishment removing children from normal learning environments), with disparities varying substantially by school district. Exclusionary discipline is an added risk factor for numerous negative academic and social outcomes. This…

Scores of intervention programs these days apply instructional and, sometimes, systemic strategies to reduce bullying in schools. However, meta-analyses show that, on average, such programs decrease bullying and victimization only by around 20%, and often show no or negative effects in middle and high schools. Due to these sobering results, we…

As researchers and practitioners begin to take a bystander approach toward preventing bullying, which involves a power imbalance between two students, it is important to acknowledge that predictors of bystander intervention may look different in various groups of students. Though school connectedness has been suggested as a predictor, previous…

Deception is a common phenomenon in everyday life, yet some people generally lie more than others and some people consider lying more acceptable than others do. Current knowledge about lie acceptability across development or about the individual differences in emotion or personality which shape it is still in an incipient stage. We aimed to expand…

Bullying bystanders' reactions are important for either stopping or perpetuating bullying behaviors. Given school-based bullying programs' focus on bystanders, understanding the associations between school-level factors and individual bystander responses can improve intervention efficacy. Data from 64,670 adolescents were used to examine bullying…

The Bystander Intervention Model proposed by social psychologists Latané and Darley has been used to examine the actions of peer bystanders in bullying. The five-stage model consists of notice the event, interpret event as an emergency, accept responsibility for intervening, know how to intervene, and implement intervention decisions. The current…

Content writing contributes to students' positive learning and outcomes. Mathematical-content writing has been shown to positively support students' mathematical reasoning, but it is challenging for many students with and without learning disabilities. This study explores proof-of-concept evaluation to extend self-regulated strategy development,…

Bullying is a prevalent issue in schools, and the importance of involving bystanders in bullying prevention has been recognized; however, there are few studies that examine personal characteristics that relate to the five steps of Latané and Darley's (1970) Bystander Intervention Model (notice the event, interpret as an emergency, accept…

School engagement has been found to be a statistically significant predictor of academic success. Education researchers are particularly interested in exploring the factors that influence the ways in which students are engaged in the classroom. As the population of students in the United States has become increasingly multicultural, it is…

Being able to construct simple sentences is necessary for effective written expression. The present study investigated effects of a sentence construction intervention on small groups of middle school students with disabilities and writing difficulties. The intervention entailed sentence instruction and frequency building to a performance…